Nora was playing with her hair while chatting with Ian. As usual, the one who was talking most of the time was Nora.

“As I said, you can stay here as much as you like.”

“Thanks, but I don’t want to burden anyone too much.”

“Burden?”

Nora patted his arm.

“Come on, come on, we have so many rooms.”

Then she put up a gloomy expression.

“Though, I’ll be leaving with my group tomorrow…”

Ian was about to say something, but two shadows appeared next to them, making them flinch. Chase and Jay suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

“Ian, brace yourself.”

Jay said in a concerned tone.

“What is happening?”

He also began to worry.

“I’ll tell you a short story.”

Chase cleared his throat.

“14 years ago in the Odiria Kingdom, a couple gave notice that their child went missing suddenly. Following that incident, reports began to increase. Babies under age two began to disappear. I didn’t know back then, but now I’m sure. It was Silvershiv. I still don’t understand why they did it, how they kept it hidden so well, and why they turned against the empire, but I’ll make sure this kind of thing won’t happen again.”

What he said was true. After a bit of research, they realized that most of the half-demons were members of the Silvershiv.

“Whatever, while I was fiddling with the old reports, I realized something. A couple had a report. It was saying that a two-year-old kid with blue eyes, wearing a homemade sweater that said ‘Ian’ on it, went missing.”

Ian’s heartbeat began to accelerate.

“W-wait.”

Chase nodded.

“Yes, it was you.”

Ian held his breath.

“Your parents are living in the Odiria Kingdom. They run a tavern.”

Chase took out a map.

“Now, if you want, I can give you their location-”

“Give me!”

Ian quickly snatched the map out of Chase’s hand. The gears of his brain were turning at full speed. He was heavily breathing and suddenly felt dizzy and lost his balance. Nora quickly caught him.

“Ian!”

“Let’s get him to the bed.”

Jay said while helping Ian standstill.

“N-no! I’ll go, now!”

“No, you can’t go in this state. Let’s get you to bed.”

And they carried him back to his room.

* * *

“A high elf?!”

Elius, Ruvyn, and Eldron asked at the same time. Algor nodded. They stared at Algor for a while without saying anything. Algor sighed and began to tell about what happened back at the Lazor Kingdom.

“I-I did that?”

“Yes, but only because you entered flow for the first time. You won’t be able to exert that much power again until you reach that level, even if you enter flow again.”

For a while, silence reigned. The one who broke it was Wilbert. He suddenly appeared with Idarin.

“Elius.”

He turned towards his dad.

“Hm?”

“Guess what. Ian found his real parents and will go to see them tomorrow.”

“What?”

Suddenly Elius fell into a dilemma. Ian was basically his brother. In a situation like this, he should have been by his side.

‘But dwarves…’

“You can go see the dwarves. You won’t be going forever anyways. Then, when you come back, you can meet his parents. I’m sure he will understand.”

Elius flinched.

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‘Damn! You scared me. You were quiet for a while.’

“I was busy analyzing your mana core. I’m still far away from completing it, but I made some progress. I think you might want to hear it.”

‘Nice! But not now. Do you really think it is okay?’

“Sure. Just talk to him.”

“What is happening here?”

Idarin asked.

‘Fine! Just like you said, I’m sure he’ll understand.’

“We are going to the Dwarf Empire!”

Elius said excitedly.

“Ooh, with who?”

After Idarin said that, Algor raised his index finger.

“Ah, I forgot to tell. Since you are under 18, you still can’t leave on your own unless you have an adventurer’s license. So someone has to accompany you.”

Elius turned toward his father.

“Don’t look at me. I’ll enjoy retirement.”

His father refused instantly.

“What? What? Mr. Idarin, could you please come with us? Fiiinee, when do we go?”

Idarin said playfully.

“How do you feel? We can wait for you to heal completely.”

Liam said with a concerned look. He was surprisingly quieter since the war ended.

“No, no, I’m okay. We can leave tomorrow.”

“Dwarves…”

He looked thoughtful.

“Mr. Idarin. Are they really good at blacksmithing as the stories tell?”

Idarin nodded.

“Yes.”

Since Liam’s weapon got destroyed, he wanted a new one, but this time he had something different than a greatsword in mind.

‘I need something compatible…’

He went inside the palace while scratching his chin.

‘Damn, we haven’t even done something properly together, but the group will separate.’

“Temporarily…”

‘Yeah, but we will graduate after six months. What if we separate for good then.’

“Right now, you should focus on the more important thing, like getting stronger. You were useless at the Lazor Kingdom.”

‘Hey…’

As much as he wanted to oppose Elly, he knew she was right. He shook his head to disperse bad thoughts. At that time, everyone seemed thoughtful, except Eldron. He was just enjoying the privileged training that he was getting from Aaron. There were two reasons why Aaron decided to take him as a student. The first and the main reason was the mysterious power that even blocked Aaron’s mana at the tournament. He wanted to learn what kind of power it was. The second reason was, Eldron was the only glaive user in the young generation. When Aaron asked Eldron why he chose glaive, Eldron said he felt an unknown attraction to it. So Aaron was quite curious about him. After chatting for a while, they went to prepare for tomorrow with many questions in mind.

* * *

The cries of pain echoed throughout the prison—the whole place was shaking. 009 raised his head. He was at the bottom of the prison, chained in both hands. He was on his knees, and he had a mouthguard. The chains were explicitly designed to block mana, so all he could do was watch the walls in front of him for years. His black hair and beard were long, and he was in rags.

‘Looks like something interesting is happening.’

The subtle smell of blood reached him.

‘Ah, man… I missed it so much. The taste of blood, the feeling I get when tearing someone apart, their scream of agony.’

He weirdly smiled. Over the years, he was constantly trying to free himself, but he couldn’t do anything without mana. He took a deep breath and licked his lips. There were still two guards in front of him. Even in the most urgent situation, they were obligated to stand there and ensure he wasn’t going anywhere.

‘When I finally broke out, these two will be my firsts. Hahaha.’

Just the thought of it was making him feel great. He imagined thousands of ways to kill them. Slashing their throats, ripping their limbs apart one by one, watching them struggle in fear. Just when his breathing accelerated out of excitement, something fell from above. It was a person.

With the sound of his fall, two guards immediately turned back, but before they could do anything, Kaiser punched one of the guards in the throat and left him breathless. The guard’s throat crushed, and it didn’t take long for him to stop moving. The other one grabbed his spear and tried to stab him, but the next thing he knew, he wasn’t the one who was wielding the spear.

Kaiser stabbed the guard in the leg and quickly went behind him. With three consecutive punches to the back, the guard was motionless on the ground. He wasn’t dead but paralyzed. Like the first guard, he was left to die slowly. Kaiser approached 009 while skipping joyfully and crouched before him.

“Damn, screamings are coming over here. You must be craving some action too, right?”

He said with a smile and crushed his mouthguard with his bare hands. 009 raised an eyebrow.

‘How?’

He gave a suspicious look to Kaiser.

“Hey, hey, don’t look at me like that.”

Then his tone became more serious out of nowhere.

“Unless you want to rot here like a rat.”

“Pfft, was I supposed to be scared?”

“You should be.”

Kaiser rubbed his hair like crazy.

“What do you want, kid?”

“I want to set you free.”

Both paused for a second.

“In exchange for what?”

A paper appeared in Kaiser’s hand.

“I’ll be in control of your leash.”

009 laughed mockingly instead of saying anything.

“Come on. You’ll be able to go rampage freely. You’ll tear apart whoever, whatever you want.”

Kaiser pointed upwards.

“You hear those voices? A martial master is keeping them busy. I told her not to kill them on purpose. That can be you. Come on, don’t you want to feel that thrill again? Notorious SS-Rank threat.”

He grabbed one of the chains that were in 009’s arm and applied some strength. Cracks began to appear on the chain’s surface. All this time, while he was talking, he held the paper in front of 009 to let him read the contract. 009 looked at the cracks on the chains with the corner of his eyes.

‘What if this is my only chance to get out of here?’

Then he glanced over the paper again.

‘Not too bad, actually.’

They both just stood for a while without saying anything.

“Okay, this is not working. You have five more seconds. Then I’ll leave. 5!”

“4!”

009 bit his lip. He bit hard enough to make it bleed and smiled. He spat the blood on the paper.

“3! Nice!”

A green circle appeared momentarily around both of their wrists and the paper burned. With that, Kaiser grabbed both the chains and broke them easily. A sudden rush of mana went through 009.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!”

He took a deep breath and completely ripped the ragged clothes he was wearing.

“For starters, all of them are yours. Take your time.”

009 was smiling like crazy. Then suddenly, the muscles in 009’s body began to grow. Not just muscles, his teeth also become longer and sharper.

“Nice!”

Kaiser was joyful after seeing him turning into a werewolf. 009 howled in excitement and jumped up to join the party.